The victory is not direct, however, as the Kings were forced to stick with Dear Life after wielding the lead to command four goals.
Phillip Danault becomes the King’s hero, winning the game winner with 42 seconds left.
His seemingly innocent wrist shot from peaks at high positions, somehow escaped the oilman Netminder Stuart Skinner, and drove the crowds in the home into madness. “I’m going all out,” Dannot quipped after the game, perhaps underestimating the lucky bounce.
Danault’s decisive goal was just 46 seconds after Oilers’ superstar Connor McDavid made a stunning comeback, winning the game at 18:32 in the third stage.
With Skinner’s additional attacker, McDavid showed off his glitter, skatered, shot from the left post and shot Kings goalkeeper Darcy Kuemper from the right circle. The Kings firmly controlled most of the game later in the second stage, setting out with a 4-0 lead. Andrei Kuzmenko opened the scoring in the power play, followed by Quinton Byfield Banking, in Skinner’s clever goal. Adrian Kempe expanded the lead with a backhand statistic, with Danault’s first night being provided by oilman defender Evan Bouchard’s expensive turnover.
But the Oilers, known for their strong offense, began a ruthless push in the late second. Leon Draisaitl finally brought Edmonton to the board with a powerful timer, and Mattias Janmark closed the gap early in the third time.
The Kings played with Kevin Fiala’s strength goal briefly blocked the trend, making it 5-2. But the Oiler refused to quit. Corey Perry was stuck in a close shot, followed by another net free throw, pulling Edmonton to one in more than two minutes.
Then there is McDavid’s exciting equalizer, which seems to seal the impossible comeback. But Danault’s late heroism regained the victory for the Kings, leaving both teams and fans breathless.
“Big, big drops, so that’s the playoffs (hockey).” Dannot admitted, adding: “It’s hard to play games like this mentally, but like I said, we have to learn from it. It’s not like a loss, but like, it hurts. It gives us a little bit.”
Kings captain Anze Kopitar responded to this view, saying: “I don’t think we’re going to get out of gas. That’s a high offensive force team, and when you sniff them, they take it. Of course they did it.”
